Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang(
"We've seen dining, drinking and gift exchanging, but we haven't seen Lien express a single word in China to reflect the Taiwanese people's feelings about the Anti-Secession Law," Su said at a press conference marking the launch of a publicity campaign to drum up support for the DPP in the May 14 National Assembly elections.
Ridiculing an earlier news report that said China may give Taiwan two pandas as a goodwill gesture in response to Lien's China visit, Su said that "what Taiwan needs is for China to destroy its missiles targeting Taiwan, and not a couple of pandas."
Su brushed off an overture by Sun Yafu (
Su called for all DPP supporters to strive to help the party win as many seats as possible in the upcoming National Assembly elections. The assembly will be charged with the task of reviewing a package of constitutional amendments passed by the Legislative Yuan last August, including halving the number of legislators and overhauling the legislative electoral system.
Taiwan’s growing defense preparations might be sending a stronger signal to the US than to Beijing, highlighting the need for Taipei to tailor its deterrence efforts to different audiences, a US security academic said yesterday. Stanford University Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies fellow Oriana Skylar Mastro made the comment during a Taipei Security Dialogue panel examining lessons Taiwan could draw from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Mastro said she was impressed by Taiwan’s increased defense spending, emphasis on asymmetric capabilities and efforts to prepare society for conflict, but questioned whom those initiatives were influencing. She said when she asked
A total of 400 foreign “high- level” professionals have been naturalized as Republic of China (Taiwan) citizens over the past decade as the government has eased nationality rules to attract talent from a wider range of fields, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The 400th high-level professional, who works in the electronics industry, was approved for ROC citizenship on Aug. 26, the MOI said. The MOI quoted the newly naturalized citizen as saying that Taiwan is a leader in fields such as semiconductors, electronics manufacturing, artificial intelligence development and energy technology. He also said
SIZE MATTERS: Large ships are politically attractive as visible symbols of national defense, but small surface combatants are more likely to survive an initial strike Taiwan needs to restructure its naval fleet from focusing on large warships, which are “sitting ducks” for China’s advanced tracking technology, to smaller, stealthy corvettes that are harder to detect but retain sufficient firepower to deter a Chinese invasion, a Taiwanese academic and a former US military commander said in an article published on Friday in the journal Foreign Affairs. Taiwan does not need a fleet capable of competing with the Chinese navy for traditional control of the Taiwan Strait, but rather “sea denial” capabilities that would prevent China from freely using the waterway, Taiwanese aerospace and security expert Holmes Liao
China has warned that it could cancel a planned US-China leaders’ summit if Washington approves new arms sales to Taiwan, a Japanese media outlet quoted sources as saying yesterday. US President Donald Trump, “apparently eager to showcase some diplomatic achievements ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections, places great importance on holding the summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平),” Japan’s Kyodo News reported. “While preparing for Xi’s upcoming trip, China has restated its position that the Taiwan issue is a ‘red line’ in bilateral relations,” the report said. The report said that when Xi met with Trump in Beijing in May, Xi said